First ever Solar observing session

[Aquavit]

A beautiful spring like afternoon here so got my 80ED set up with AstroZap Baader filter for the first time. Viewing through Hypflex 21 - 7 zoom, used the slot in the phone mount to roughly align the sun and away we went:

 

Immediately noticed four sunspots and close inspection revealed another close to the edge and then a fainter collection of spots grouped together making six separate phenomena. A lot more than I expected! 

A really enjoyable hour, basking in the warmth of the object I was closely observing  and knowing it was 92 million miles away was quite thrilling. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Aquavit
Added text.

[Roy Challen]

Sounds like a well-spent hour, but be careful - white light is feeder into Ha 😃

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Aquavit said:

A beautiful spring like afternoon here so got my 80ED set up with AstroZap Baader filter for the first time. Viewing through Hypflex 21 - 7 zoom, used the slot in the phone mount to roughly align the sun and away we went:

 

Immediately noticed four sunspots and close inspection revealed another close to the edge and then a fainter collection of spots grouped together making six separate phenomena. A lot more than I expected! 

A really enjoyable hour, basking in the warmth of the object I was closely observing  and knowing it was 92 million miles away was quite thrilling. 

Really nice grab and go setup that will show you plenty 👍. You’ve chosen a great time to start solar observing; the Sun is increasing in activity currently and getting more and more lively, so there’s often plenty to see.

Look out for the bright thin lines called faculae which are often seen towards the darker limb.

Looking forward to more reports 👍

[PeterStudz]

I really enjoy white light solar. And initially it was an afterthought. Gives a whole new dimension to the hobby. 

[Aquavit]

2 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

Sounds like a well-spent hour, but be careful - white light is feeder into Ha 😃

That thought had crossed my mind! It's a slippery slope🙈

[Sunshine]

A great little grab and go setup for while light! it really is a thrill to see the sun do it's thing.

[Aquavit]

Out again this afternoon, making hay whilst the sun shines so to speak as wall to wall cloud forecast for the next week. Really nice relaxing in warmish sun as opposed to freezing my proverbials off in -4 in the dark!

Swapped the mount from AZ Pronto to AZT6 to evaluate whether I prefer slo-mo or not, I think I prefer without and the AZT6 with counterweight makes light work of the 80ED, smooth and relatively vibration free even on the Manfrotto tripod. Should be even better on the inbound Uni 18:

 

 

Six areas of activity easily observed with a possible seventh just visible, I found viewing at around 40x suited me and allowed around 2.5 minutes viewing before I needed to nudge the scope. Anyway, here's a rather bad phone snap of today's sunspots:

[Gonariu]

Beautiful photo! You see well the sun spots, my students  would be interested by it.

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Edited February 17, 2023 by Gonariu